Arizona officials gathered together Sunday to hold an emergency meeting to discuss three fatal, head-on wrong-way driver collisions that happened in a span of 6-days. Both law enforcement and transportation officials attended the meeting.
The third fatal collision took place early Sunday morning when two people were killed after their car was struck by a wrong-way driver on the Santan Freeway in Gilbert, Arizona Department of Public Safety Officials said.
An emergency meeting was held Sunday after 3 wrong-way driver collisions took place in a 6-day span in Arizona.
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The fatal crash is the third to take place in six days by a wrong-way driver. The three collisions combined have claimed the lives of seven people â€" including an off-duty police officer according to USA Today.
The string of three fatal car collisions in just a week’s time is a tragic coincidence that even law enforcement officials and investigators are struggling to wrap their minds around, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Raul Garcia said.
“This past week and a half has weighed heavy with everyone involved,†Garcia said.
On Sunday, a pickup truck entered the Loop 202 along the eastern stretch of the freeway, heading west in the eastbound lanes, Garcia said.
Multiple patrol vehicles and police responded, but unfortunately they were too late to catch the truck, after it collided head-on with a car, Garcia said. Two people were killed that were travelling in the correct direction. The driver of the truck suffered from serious injuries while the passenger suffered non-life threatening injuries. Both were taken to the hospital.
Impairment is said not to be a factor, Garcia said.
Authorities try to intercept wrong-way drivers with stop sticks or by ramming their vehicles, Officer Carrick Cook, a Department of Public Safety spokesman said.
“There is no existing protocol that would be outside of just trying to get ahead of the vehicle,†he said.
An off-duty police officer, officer Brandon Mendoza, 32, was killed in the early morning of May 12, when 42-year-old Raul Silva-Corona rammed into Mendoza’s vehicle on a ramp linking U.S. 60 to Interstate 10 as he was heading to his Phoenix home after finishing a patrol shift, police said.
Silva’s blood-alcohol content was 0.24%, more than triple the legal limit to drive in Arizona. He had driven more than 30 miles in the wrong direction on Valley freeways, with highway patrol attempting to track him down before the crash. Both men were killed in the crash.
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